Honours Programs

If you are seeking to improve your career prospects, aspiring to further academic study, or simply wishing to indulge a passion, then honours is your next step. For many students, honours is a first step towards advanced academic research pathways such as Masters and PhD. For others, it is the catalyst to an outstanding career in the workforce. Honours research helps improve your problem solving skills, your capacity to work independently or under supervision, and gives you the opportunity to develop your self-motivation. These skills are highly desirable in the workplace or in further research.

Our Honours programs are designed to allow well-qualified graduates to extend their studies in areas relevant to the sciences, either to improve their career prospects through gaining specialized skills or to proceed to higher degree studies. Honours provides a pathway for technical and research career options in industry, government, universities and research organisations.

Admission to Honours requires an AQF Level 7 Bachelor degree in a cognate discipline with a GPA of 5.5 or better. Completion to the standard of Honours Class II Division 1 or better is the normal mode of entry to candidature for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Bachelor of Science with Honours (HBSC)

The Bachelor of Science with Honours (BSc Hons) program, offered through the School of Science and Technology and School of Environmental and Rural Science, is designed to allow well-qualified graduates to extend their studies and gain high level conceptual and theoretical knowledge and technical skills in a range of disciplines/majors offered by each school. The School of Environmental and Rural Science offers majors relevant to Agronomy, Animal Science, Botany, Ecology, Environmental Science, Geoscience, Genetics, and Zoology.

The honours student will also gain cross-disciplinary exposure to a range of professionals and professions in their major area. Each candidate will receive support from the School to undertake and complete their project. Students will develop the ability to design, critically analyse and interpret science data, to develop solutions in the context of technical, management and/or scientific frameworks and will demonstrate high-level written and oral communication skills.

All students wishing to be considered for award of the BRurSc or BAnSc with Honours must undertake and complete the unit Rural Science/Livestock Science Honours (RUSC 490) in their final year of candidature.

The award of Honours is based on the student's performance in the second, third and fourth years of candidature including the thesis.

The University of New England respects and acknowledges that its people, programs and facilities are built on land, and surrounded by a sense of belonging, both ancient and contemporary, of the world's oldest living culture. In doing so, UNE values and respects Indigenous knowledge systems as a vital part of the knowledge capital of Australia.